When business is less than robust - the situation of late - he puts on his entrepreneur's hat. He buys wintertime fruits and vegetables wholesale and then sells items retail to a circle of downtown friends and customers.

His shop was loaded with bags of oranges, avocados and nuts during January's cold snap. "When things are slow, I go to what I know."

With rent at $300 a month for his business, Henderson is able to regulate his work and put his focus where he wants. He is almost as proud of the memorabilia that adorns his walls as any shoe transactions.

He has a collection of photographs, many of them autographed, from the glory days of the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders.

His shop walls also are lined with pictures from mid-20th century Stockton.

Henderson is particularly proud that he has pictures of the old county courthouse and jail.

"I know stuff. That's why I have all these historical things. When I can get something historical, I grab it."

His shop has been in its location for six years. His door is adjacent to the back entrance of the Bob Hope Theatre. Henderson said he loves the location, his third spot over the past couple of decades.

"I've met a lot of celebrities. I've got a picture over here signed by The Oak Ridge Boys."

Henderson's business model is simple, and one he has learned as a 50-year member of the Elks Lodge and as a Shriner and Mason.

"I learned how to treat people. And I enjoy it - every day. People know me from all over."

He was born in Dallas, raised in Oklahoma City (a graduate of then-segregated, all-black Douglas High School) and a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

He came to Stockton in the 1940s when his mother, the late Mary Henderson, got a job teaching at Edison High School. Henderson never married, but has one son who is an Amtrak engineer and lives in San Bernardino.

Are the days numbered for Frank's Shoeshine? Not according to Henderson. "I'm going to keep working until ... ."